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Looking beyond the CV: 4 start-ups that could change the way you recruit

One of the major trends in recruitment following the recession was risk-aversion. Increasingly, hiring managers sought out previous experience gained from within a direct competitor, experience that became essential rather than desirable. Fewer risks were taken as managers opted to play it safe and recruit from their competitors.

There is no denying this approach has its benefits – training new employees on a whole new industry can be time-consuming and disruptive. However, as the UK economy is recovering and vacancies increase, can employers afford to recruit from such a restricted pool? And, perhaps more significantly, are these candidates always the best talent available?

We have been trialling merit-based hiring with a number of our clients. By amending the standard recruitment process to incorporate a test or challenge, we are working towards reducing the reliance on CV selection for certain roles, particularly when recruiting for tech or digital roles.

Today’s candidates expect easier and faster application processes (highlighted by the likes of ‘Tinder for jobs’ site SelfieJobs). Requiring applicants to complete tests can bring challenges as the applicant must also benefit for investing time in the process; hence the popularity of the gamification of application processes. However, our trials reveal that tests can actually improve the candidate experience.

Here are 4 start-ups on our radar that are challenging the status quo:

CodilityCodility provides objective insights into candidates' programming skills, revealing their technical ability and thought process before being selected to progress to the interview stage. This technology allows recruiters without technical backgrounds to filter out candidates without involving their tech colleagues in the early stages.

GapJumpers Blind interviewing works well on The Voice, so why not for your recruitment? GapJumpers, a US start-up, removes bias by inviting applicants to respond to a task and removing all of the candidate’s personal details.

Hire My Friend Hire My Friend is a referral platform which invites people to create an anonymous profile, listing their skills and specifying the kinds of jobs they are looking for. Users can then request tweets and endorsements from their Twitter connections, which will move them up the candidate list.

1-Page Using 1-Page, employers can set a challenge for applicants to complete and results are assessed against predictive success data. 1-Page considers language used, sentiment analysis and themed-based data management to filter the best applications.

- Tom Lakin, Innovation Consultant, Resource Solutions

Want to find out more about how we are reimagining the recruitment process for our clients? Contact us for the latest updates.